Chapter 31

Shadow was standing in a black and white space. It was split vertically down the middle, leaving Shadow on the white half. He was completely healed and wearing a black shirt and black shorts. He looked around. No one. It was just him and the empty void around him.

"Is this like my subconsciousness or something weird like that?" he asked aloud.

"That's one way to look at it." Shadow spun around to see a person standing behind him. The person had silver hair, red and yellow eyes like Solaris', three pairs of deep crimson wings, long red horns and a thin tail. He was wearing a white shirt and white shorts. He had a knowing smile on his face and looked very similar to Shadow. He had a scar that crossed from his chin over his mouth. He was standing on the black side of the room.

"This is the space inside of your soul." the person said in a misty, unrealistic voice. Silence.

"What?" Shadow's face was filled with utter confusion.

"That's a good question."

"Who are you?"

"I am you."

"But I am me."

"I am too. But to be more accurate, I am your past self or what you could've been."

"You're strange."

"If I am strange, you are too." Silence again. The person's smile suddenly vanished and his expression turned serious. "Be careful where you walk, Korrozak. You can't be a 'shadow' forever. Eventually, there will be a time when you are forced to face the truth. You can either run from it and continue being a 'shadow' or you can accept it with open arms." His expression turned desperate. "You must accept it when the time comes! Your friends' lives depend on it!"

"What are you-?" A huge white crack suddenly appeared behind the person and white light shined into the seemingly empty room. 

"You are waking up. Looks like you have to go."

"Wait! Tell me what you mean! I don't understand!" Shadow reached out a hand but the crack grew in size and he felt as if he was being pushed back.

"You will know as soon as you are ready."

"At least tell me your name!" Shadow called out desperately as the void was filled with a blinding white light. The person gave him a warm smile.

"Don't forget, ."

Shadow blinked open his eyes and stared at the ceiling above him. The room was dark, as the lights were off. He looked around to see Solaris dozing in the bed just to his left. He still had his mask on but the rest of his clothes had disappeared and were replaced with a patient's outfit. Shadow sat up and held his forehead in confusion. He couldn't remember what he had dreamt about, or if he had dreamed at all. He decided to let the matter go, as it seemed to be of little importance, and silently slipped out of the bed. He was a little wobbly on his feet but he managed to change out of the patient's outfit and back into his regular clothes. He then left the infirmary and wandered up to the viewing area. When he opened the door, all the people there were gathered around a hologram that listed the names of all the examinees. All eyes turned towards him and he suddenly felt like he was intruding on an important meeting. Eclipse and Emperion were the first to rush over to his side.

"Woah, Shadow! Should you be out of bed right now? You sure took a beating from Solaris." Eclipse wondered.

"I'm fine." he assured. "I came to see the results of the matches."

"Are you sure you're fine? You seem kind of wobbly." Emperion asked.

"Calm down, Emperion. It's unlike you to worry about others." Shadow teased. Emperion blushed in embarrassment and shifted back a few feet. Shadow just laughed.

"I see you're in good spirits." Silver stated, walking over.

"Yup! It was a fun battle." Shadow smiled. Silver smiled back and led the three over to the hologram.

"These are everyone's overall scores across all three tests. With a max of 30, points were assigned for each test. The passing score for each test was 15 points. Which means, to pass the entrance exam and get a personal trainer assigned to you, you need to get a grand total of 45 out of 90 points." Silver explained, gesturing to the holo-board. There, it listed each and every person's name from highest points to lowest points. Shadow's score was near the top, but he was beaten by Eclipse at 85 to 87. Shadow gave a small disappointed sigh before turning to Eclipse. He held up his hand and Eclipse high-fived him.

"Great job, Eclipse! You got 87 points!"

"Y-You aren't upset or anything?" Eclipse blushed from pride.

"Of course I am. But there's no point in moping around over a two point difference." Shadow turned to Emperion to give him a high-five when he noticed Emperion's dumbstruck face. He pointed a shaky hand at the scoreboard.

"I… I… only got… 44 points?" Shadow could hardly suppress his laughter.

"What? The 'Great' Emperion only got 44 points? That's like a fly compared to my 85 points."

"What is this madness! I did so much better than- wait, 85?" Emperion paused mid-sentence to look at Shadow, who smiled back. He looked back at the scoreboard and gave a dramatic gasp. He then scooted towards Shadow and started nudging his arm with his elbow.

"How could you let Eclipse be two points above you? That's like... impossible for you." Emperion smiled smugly.

"Who said I had to be better than Eclipse? I just had to impress the personal trainers and get a qualifying score." Shadow shrugged indifferently. Emperion huffed in disappointment.

"Oh, really now? But you just said you were upset at not getting a better score than me!" Eclipse butt in. Emperion turned his head towards Shadow, staring at him with a mischievous cat face.

"I never said I didn't want to win. I just said I didn't need to win." Shadow gave the two a smug smile. He then turned his full attention to Emperion. "But in all seriousness, how did you manage to get a 44 when you bragged and bragged and bragged about how you were going to get the highest exam score just a week ago? You even boasted about the training I was giving you. After all the hard work I put into that and you didn't even pass." Shadow put his hands on his hips, shook his head and gave a disappointed sigh. Emperion's face turned red in hot embarrassment.

"Well I just thought I would let Eclipse take the win for me and it just so happened that you got ahead of me too." Emperion mumbled, closing his eyes, crossing his arms and lifting up his chin.

"By 'you', did you mean just me or practically every other examinee?" Emperion tensed up and took a peek at the board again. He completely stiffened when he saw how low on the scoreboard he was. "Uh... well I... just... have a hard time controlling my power! Yeah that's all! I just need to work on power control." Emperion explained, shaking. Shadow watched him with a knowing smile and Eclipse just shook his head slowly Shadow leaned closer to Eclipse.

"I think he's trying to convince himself more than he's trying to convince us." Eclipse nodded in agreement before they both turned to leave.

"Hey, wait!" Emperion cried, running after them.

"You'll be handed a list of instructors to choose from a few days after the exam so keep an eye out for it!" Silver called after them. Shadow waved his acknowledgment before the door closed behind him.

"Let's go hang out in the hot springs! You guys haven't had a chance to rest quite yet, have you?" They both shook their heads and Shadow clapped his hands together. "Alright! You two go on ahead. I'll grab Jay so that we can throw a party afterwards." Without waiting for a response, he teleported out, full of energy once again.

~ * ~

Shadow took a gentle step into the warm water of the hot springs as Jay, Eclipse and Emperion finished undressing. He waded to the end of the hot spring and sat down in the shallow water. Jay hopped in after him along with Eclipse while Emperion took a few steps back. Shadow let out a sigh of annoyance, knowing what comes next. Emperion began to sprint towards the hot spring when Shadow cast a small barrier in front of his feet, tripping him before he could jump. He made a squeak and a big sploosh as he accidentally belly flopped into the water, spraying water everywhere. Everyone burst out laughing as Emperion stood up, furious, and stomped towards Shadow. Emperion grabbed him by the hair and lifted him a little bit out of the water, growling. Instantly, Shadow grabbed his wrist and pressed hard. Emperion let out a surprised yelp of pain and let go of Shadow's hair, and in one swift motion, Shadow pulled Emperion down, jumped behind him and held him, hand behind back, against the edge of the hot spring.

"Ow! Can't you take a joke?" Emperion grunted. Just then, Shadow perked up and released Emperion.

"Sorry! My self defense kicked in and I just snapped." Shadow let go immediately and stepped back.

"'Self defense'? That was a straight take down!" Eclipse exclaimed. Shadow nodded vigorously, as if he was being praised.

"What about the rest of the times I assaulted you without warning? Did your 'self defense' not activate or something?"

"You're so obvious I usually turn it off before you start making a move. Guess I just forgot this time." Shadow shrugged. "Seriously, I insult you so often and you have such a short temper. It'd be a surprise if you didn't attack me."

"So you didn't expect me this time?" Emperion asked, sounding impressed in himself.

"No, I just thought you were going to stand in the middle of the pool and whine like a baby before you attacked." Shadow averted his eyes. Emperion's joyous face turned into anger and he stood in front of Shadow again, fists clenched.

"What did you just say?"

"Just like that." Shadow pointed at Emperion with an indifferent expression.

"Why you..!" Emperion gritted his teeth. He jumped at Shadow with a fist ready but Shadow just grabbed his head and forced it underwater. Emperion started flailing but Shadow didn't budge.

"You are such a meathead." Shadow sighed, a hint of affection in his voice. He let go of Emperion's head and he jumped up gasping for air.

"Fine, you win this time." he coughed. Shadow gave a satisfied smile and Emperion angrily sat down on the other side of the hot spring. A moment of silence followed.

"Alright! Let's address the elephant in the room." Jay started. He pointed at Eclipse. "Who is he and why is he here?"

"Oh, right! I forgot to introduce you two." Shadow exclaimed. "Jay, this is Eclipse. He beat me in the DAF exam by two points. Eclipse, this is Jay. I first met him when we were both captured by Vytal. We've been together ever since we escaped." Shadow gestured to each in turn. Eclipse held out a hand to Jay.

"Nice to meet you." Jay took his hand.

"Likewise." Jay turned towards Shadow. "Did you say he beat you in the entrance exam?"

"If it was a competition." Shadow nodded.

"I was kinda surprised too." Eclipse admitted. "But we both hit the top two scores, so there's that."

"How far up were you, Emperion?" Emperion stiffened at the question and a smug look crossed Shadow's face.

"He was one of the last. He didn't even make it in. He failed by one point. Can you believe it?"

"I knew he was going to fail."

"Hey! That's so mean! Can't you have a little more faith in me?" Emperion roared.

"I know, I know. I was just teasing." Jay giggled.

"Now it's my turn for a question." Emperion started. He turned towards Eclipse and Shadow. "You two were like archenemies from the moment you laid eyes on each other and now you guys are the best of buds? What happened?" Eclipse and Shadow looked at each other for a moment. Jay watched with curiosity. Shadow turned towards Jay and put on a smug smile.

"You see, he was trying to be a tough guy and pick a fight with me after I flawlessly destroyed a robot during the first test when he's no bigger than I am and as thin as a toothpick. He must've thought he would look cool if he stood up to the strong guy in the room even though I wasn't doing anything." Eclipse blushed as he listened to Shadow describe their first encounter. "And then during the second test, he tries to pick another fight with me in the middle of rescuing somebody and he only shuts up after I snap at him. And then when we were in the middle of picking opponents for the third test, he throws a tantrum when the-."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Eclipse interrupted, shoving his hands over Shadow's mouth to try and get him to stop talking. "That's not what happened and you know it!" Shadow easily moved Eclipse's hands aside and continued.

"But when we start talking, he gets all excited talking about amazing adventures he's been on. His whole 'tough guy' persona collapsed once I found the right topic of conversation. Like this guy can't be any older than I am and he's-." Shadow suddenly stopped. Eclipse also stopped struggling at his sudden pause.

"What's the matter?" Jay asked.

"I just realized… am I the oldest one here?"

"I'm 14." Eclipse stated as he pulled his hands away from Shadow's mouth and washed them in the hotspring.

"I'm about 10." Jay added.

"15." Emperion said simply.

"And I'm 17." Shadow finished with a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong with being the oldest?" Emperion asked.

"Being the oldest means that it's my responsibility to make sure you guys don't do anything stupid!" he whined. "But I don't want to be a responsible person!" Jay let out a little chuckle and Eclipse just shook his head with a smile. Shadow let himself sink into the hot spring until he was nose deep. A few minutes of silence passed.

"I wonder who will ask to be my personal trainer? I wonder which one I should pick?" Shadow whispered out of nowhere. "I hope I can duel with Solaris again."